The Bickershaw Festival 1972
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- Опубліковано 18 бер 2021
- UK Nationwide was a TV show and here we see them reporting on this historical music event.
Restored to HQ visual and audio.
In the UK the Bickershaw Festival took place between May 5th until May 7th in 1972 and was assembled under the auspices of a Manchester businessmen, a Wigan market trader and we see a very young Jeremy Beadle, before he achieved fame as a television presenter in the 1980's until his death in January 2008.
Jeremy booked West Coast bands and was the artistic policy maker. Chris Hewitt of Ozit Morpheus Records and manager of Tractor, worked with Jeremy and was involved in distribution of publicity and tickets. Although the organizers put together a line-up of United Kingdom and American acts such as the Grateful Dead, Captain Beefheart, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dr. John, Hawkwind, The Kinks, Country Joe McDonald, The Incredible String Band, Donovan, Wishbone Ash, Maynard Ferguson, and a host of non-musical acts such as Cheech & Chong, high divers and clowns, the festival suffered from several major deficiencies.
The artist line-up was inspirational to many especially the late-night set from Captain Beefheart. Elvis Costello stood in the mud amazed by the five-hour set from the Grateful Dead, the performance which convinced him he should start a band. Future rock journalist and rock biographer Mick Middles, then age 16, traveled there on a moped just to watch the Grateful Dead on the Sunday.
INFO ON THIS VIDEO / EVENT
There were problems. The site was prone to flooding and there was standing water. The weather was wet: It rained before the festival opened and then showered for most of the three days of the festival. A tank used by a high-dive act was emptied directly onto the area in front of the stage, resulting in a sea of mud.
Security on the gates was inefficient. Tickets were taken and resold to those who were entering the site or were not checked. Festival goers simply got pass-outs and sold their ticket at half price to people arriving. As a consequence the organizers lost money. By Sunday, all semblance of organization had disappeared and locals wandered freely onto the site to watch the Grateful Dead. By this time much of the site was awash with mud.
Nevertheless the event has gone down in music history for being very unique in so many ways. This is rare footage from a TV news programme at that time called 'Nationwide' as it looked North.
This Greg GNP channel has worked hard in enhancing video quality and audio quality from this original rare footage. The audio was seriously enhanced after many hours of work and overlaid on the video footage you see.
Enjoy :)
Interesting to see the young organiser talking to the camera was Jeremy Beadle.
"I've heard of yoghurt" - priceless!
😂😂😂😂
GREAT piece of film !!! I watched as a kid the festival being built up going to it and then the week after brought down many Memories !!!! THANK YOU
Interesting to see a young Jeremy Beadle!
I was just going to post this! As I was watching the interview I was thinking "I recognise that voice...."
Brilliant restoration work. I was at the festival and it made a lasting impression on me. Whenever I have been sleeping in less than perfect circumstances I remind myself that I survived three nights at Bickershaw in the mud and the rain. 😁
The music was glorious and the sense of comradeship among the soaking wet festival goers was priceless. Even if there were some "sharks" selling curry powder in resin as Moroccan gold 😜
i remember getting a taxi from manchester and the driver had a huge german shepherd in the front of the cab for protection
@@barbararocca5561 Protection from us peaceful hippies.. Sigh...
Yes I was there. I loved the music but jeez the conditions were grim.
Even the rainstorm on Friday night didn't dampen our spirit.
I was there as well, good times … saw the Grateful Dead of course !
I went to this concert back in 72, it was brilliant even better I lived at the time about 1mile from here..✌🏼
I was there Beefheart and Stackridge were outstanding
Bickershaw was my first festival, I went to quite a few more after that, but Bickershaw remains the coldest and wettest out of them all, most of the time we were cold, wet and hungry, but it didn't matter, we still had a great time and it was an experience I'll never forget, there was just so many colourful characters there, and merging with the crowd was all a part of the experience...but those toilets...ohhh man, I kept putting off using them until Sunday morning, then I had to go, but improvising on toilet paper was a nightmare, I can strongly recommend never using damp discarded crisp packets and cigarette boxes as a replacement
Thank you for sharing your story. Wow interesting 👍
Hi, 😂😂😂 Amazing music but thanks for reminder of the other stuff. And they called those cesspits “toilets” 😱😱😱. Hey we survived it though 👍🏻
@@misstrekfreak Me and my mate hitchhiked down there from North Yorkshire, it took us just over 24 hrs to arrive at the site after spending the night at the side of the motorway and dodging the cops, and we did plan to hitch back, but we were so cold and wet, we said fk it and got the train back...but great times, and better than the $hit we face now
I was there with my friend Steve Moreton, great week end despite the rain
Went here with John Wilkinson,great weekend , wet and muddy good sounds nice people.I read shortly after,the festival was nicknamed Bickerswim! well titled
I wish there was some footage of Clitheroe Festival from '73. Maybe it's best to just keep it in the memory.
great bit of film, love it! So what was the line up for this gig?
'I've heard of yoghurt..'
I was there in 72.No one ever mentions the Kinks getting boo'ed off after Davies sang Lola with a gay accent.It started on the right of the crowd and went across to the left side everyone going booo,oo.There were more the 60,000,it was reported 200,000 because people broke through the fences.I used the paper sleeping bags that were given for free.
Do you remember the Hawkwind set and the huge fans they put on the stage to blow the black they lit out into the crowd
@@midgehaus Absolutely,we thought pink Floyd was going to be there.Remember country Joe?Wishbone ash was my fav as a kid.Great memories.
Don't remember that. I remember Ray was pissed and having a good time. I remember the organ was out of tune and he and the keyboard player attacked it and turned it over. One of the stage crew complained and the keyboards guy carried on playing the grand piano. I remember it was a great set and I doubt if I booed, but fuck the people who did.
@@colinsbane Agreed! Looking at the video you can see the plywood scaffold that held the PA.I was on the right scaffold looking at the stage.Along comes Dr Hook[the guy with the patch over his eye] dressed as a pirate telling everyone to get off,which no one did.
@@user-il4br8du1s wishbone was also a fav as a kid from brooklyn
I was there
'l have heard of yoghurt,
any footage of hawkwind?
I was told that The Grateful Dead couldn't go on because of rain and how wet everything was at that point for their electric instruments, so Maynard ferguson who had his jazz big band with almost no electrics said he would go on to fill some time and when he did the clouds parted and the sun came out and Maynard passed it to Jerry. This isn't listed in anything as it was impromptu...Did anyone recall this?
Ask Elvis Costello. Apparently it was the Dead's set that convinced him to start a band.
I split when the rain started. Yes, I’m a wimp. Anyway, I had tix for two Lyceum shows.
We're bickershaw ?
Please read the description.
Between Leigh and Wigan.
Wigan
Let's have a big hand for Jeremy Beadle.
A total flop in the sea of mud for three days.